MTVN Invests In TagWorld; Eager For Social Networking Tools

You’re reading this here first … According to multiple sources, Viacom has invested in social networking company TagWorld for MTV Networks — not for the site but for access to the company’s tools and technology. We’ve been hearing about this for months in various forms but couldn’t confirm until now. TagWorld was founded in 2005 by Fred Krueger and Evan Rifkin and is still listed as beta; it has more than 3 million registered users, according to a press release from late last year. It allows users to build their own sites and share a la MySpace.com and the others, has its own music and video players, and is testing video chat and the now-requisite widgets. MTVN has talked for months about building its own social networking rather than acquiring one of the remaining large established companies. This would add to their arsenal.
The investment should fall under Nick Lehman’s MTVN Games and Interactive Media group, which includes Xfire and Flux. MTVN PR declined comment.
Related: Social Networking Site Tagworld Gets Funding